1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a carpet kicker, and more particularly to a carpet kicker that can push a free end a carpet forward for the laying a carpet, such that the carpet can be pulled, spread and fixed smoothly on the floor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Carpets are commonly laid on the floor of our home or office and give us an indoor warm and comfortable feeling. However, carpets must be laid evenly and smoothly on the floor, or else the carpets will be uneven, not only affecting its appearance, but also creating a problem of stumbling people easily.
If a large carpet is laid, a user usually cannot pull and spread the thick and heavy carpet smoothly by hands, and thus a carpet kicker is needed for the job.
Referring to FIG. 1, a prior art carpet kicker 70 is used to hold a free end of a carpet 62 to push it towards a pin board 60 at a wall, and the carpet kicker 70 includes a rectangular main body 71, a kicking unit 72 installed at a front end of the main body 71, a plurality of protruding pins 73 disposed at the bottom surface of the kicking unit 72 for hooking and pulling the carpet 62. The height of the protruding pin 73 can be controlled by a knob 74. The main body 11 includes a cushion 75 disposed at an end of the main body 11, and carpet kickers of this sort are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,374,023.
When the carpet kicker 70 is in use, a user presses the main body 71 by hands, and pushes the cushion 75 in the arrowed direction by knees, such that the kicking unit 72 holds and moves the carpet 62 gradually towards a pin board 60 on a wall, and finally hooks an edge of the carpet 62 to a hook pin 61 of the pin board 60 to spread and fix the carpet 62. However, such method is time-consuming and laborious, and using knees to push the cushion 75 for a long time will become an issue of professional safety.
Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3 for another prior art carpet kicker 80, the carpet kicker 80 comprises an air pressure input end 81 connected to an air compressor 90 for providing air pressure to a housing 83 through a handle 82. The housing 83 includes a piston (not shown in the figure) for controlling a piston rod 85 to move forward and backward axially, and an external end of the piston rod 85 is connected to a hooking rod 86, and the bottom of the hooking rod 86 includes a hook 861. Further, a kicking unit 84 is installed at the bottom of a front end of the housing 83. Although the carpet kicker 80 intends to pull the carpet 62 pneumatically, its application still has the following problems:
1. Since the piston is driven pneumatically to move the piston rod 85, therefore an external air compressor 90 is needed to supply air pressure which is inconvenient to users. In other words, users have to carry a heavy and expensive air compressor 90 for the use of the carpet kicker 80, and it thus makes the application impractical.
2. Since the interval D between a pin board 60 for fixing the carpet 62 and a skirting board 64 at the wall is only 5 mm˜10 mm, and the design does not allow the hook 861 to be installed within the interval D, and it often makes the carpet kicker 80 useless. If the interval D of the pin board 60 is increased to allow the installation of the hook 861, the carpet will produce creases easily and affect the appearance of the carpet adversely.
3. More importantly, the carpet kicker 80 uses the hooking rod 86 to hook a fixed end of the pin board 60, and then the piston board 85 is moved back and forth to pull components such as the housing 83, handle 82 and kicking unit 84 indicated by dotted lines in the figure to move towards the wall synchronously. Furthermore, the method of using the protruding pin 841 to drive and pull the carpet 62 towards the pin board 60 is not too practical, because all of the actions for hooking and pulling the carpet 62 are centralized at the hook 861, and the pin board 60 is lifted by the hook 861 when the carpet 62 has not been pulled evenly yet. Therefore, such method of pulling the carpet still has its inevitable drawbacks and requires further improvements.